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Bizarre parasitic fungus that makes ants climb to the highest location before their heads explode.

Another Facebook phishing attack was under way Thursday. Phishers hijacked Facebook messages and inserted fake links that take users to a bogus site where they were instructed to log in to Facebook again. If they did, the phishers captured the username and password information.

One version of the e-mail reads: “Susan sent you a message. Subject: Hello. Check 121.im,” with “121.im” as a link. Compromised accounts help spread the malicious links rapidly across the network.

Facebook identified and blocked the e-mails with the fake link within a few hours of the attack’s execution, but many members received the bogus message before the popular social-networking site acted. Facebook changes the passwords on victims’ accounts to foil the phishers, but it hasn’t divulged how many of its 200 million members were affected.

Danger to Corporations

The latest attack comes as no surprise to Sophos. Just two weeks ago, the company revealed the results of its latest research into cybercrime’s new frontier: Social networking.

A recent Sophos poll revealed 63 percent of system administrators worry that employees share too much personal information via their social-networking profiles, putting their corporate infrastructure — and the sensitive data stored on it — at risk. The findings also indicate that a quarter of businesses have been the victim of spam, phishing or malware attacks via sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace.

With social networking now part of many computer users’ daily routine, unprecedented amounts of information are updated every minute, Sophos said. Frequent use of social-networking sites makes them a prime target for cybercriminals intent on stealing identities, spreading malware, or bombarding users with spam.

The Bigger Picture

In Thursday’s scam, hackers sent convincing messages to compromised members’ friends and family, potentially stealing their credentials and opening them up to the danger of malicious Web sites or spam advertisements, according to…

AirKicking

This human catapult launches individuals over 26 feet in the air into a swimming pool or foam pit.
Describing the AirKick’s functionality, Jochen Schweizer explains, “it propels participants through the air in a pre-calculated parabolic trajectory using a special combination of air pressure and water recoil technology. The participant sits in a specially constructed seat at the back end of the catapult arm and 3,2,1…Liftoff. He sets the device in motion himself by pushing a button. Approximately 60 Liters of water are then forced through a rocket nozzle under the seat. This pressurized water (8 to 10 bar of air pressure) propels the participant 8 meters though the air for a cool and refreshing splash down in a swimming pool.”

Tuna Throwing

The Tunarama festival is arguably the highlight of the year in Port Lincoln, South Australia. Even though the festival has such attractions as a slippery pole competition and camel rides, nothing can top the tuna throwing competition. For a grand prize of $7,000, contestants have to launch a full-grown tuna like a hammer throw. For those who were concerned, the competition only uses only spoiled fish, so the event is even somewhat Peta-friendly.

Midget Throwing

The Midget Throwing, or Dwarf Tossing, originated in Australia in the 1980’s.
A bar attraction in which dwarves wearing special padded clothing or Velcro costumes are thrown onto mattresses or at Velcro-coated walls, participants of the contest compete to throw the dwarf the farthest.
Dwarf tossing is widely considered to be offensive to the dignity of dwarfs, and some legislators have considered bans. Proponents of the sport have criticized such moves, with some arguing bans deny dwarfs a possible source of income.

Cheese rolling

Cheese rolling is an exercise in simplicity – the event literally entails rolling a wheel of cheese down a hill and chasing it. The official event takes place in Gloucestershire on Cooper’s Hill, a rather steep incline. The event, not surprisingly, attracts plenty of drinking, which can lead to injuries when combined with a high-speed chase down a steep hill. One year, two thirds of the contestants got injured and in 1998, the police shut down the event for public safety. Cheese rolling has a rich history, having combated food rationing (contestants instead chased a wooden wheel with a small piece of cheese inside) and a ban on rural activities due to the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak.

Wife-carrying contest

A wife-carryingcontest is actually a lot like it sounds. Men, carrying wives, race through an obstacle course that includes sand, water and fences. The prize for winning the race is the wife’s weight in beer. It’s really all very civilized.
The sport — yes, it’s a sport — originated in Finland, and was most likely inspired by a duo of historical tales. A 19th century legend has it that men stole wives from neighboring villages. In a second tale, an outlaw named Rosvo-Ronkainen made potential soldiers prove themselves in a race where they carried heavy sacks

Mobile phone throwing

Mobile phone throwing is an international sport that started in Finland in the year 2000. It is a sport in which participants throw mobile phones and are judged on distance or technique.
There are usually four categories in the sport:
Original (also called ‘Traditional’): an over-the-shoulder throw with the farthest distance winning (best of 3)
Freestyle: contestants get points for aesthetics and creative choreographics
Team original: up to three competitors have one throw each with their scores added together
Junior: for children aged 12 or younger
The phones used vary not just between events but between competitors, with any phone that weighs over 220 grams being acceptable
At some events the choice is down to personal preference from those provided by the event organisers, while others provide only one model of phone.

Buzkashi

The national sport of Afghanistan, Buzkashi is kind of like polo, except that it’s played with a calf’s carcass. The calf or goat, if a calf isn’t available, is decapitated and placed in a hole in the ground. Riders on horses compete to grab the body, ride around two poles, then get it back in the “circle of justice.” The winner is the one who gets the calf into the circle, even if he didn’t carry it around the poles, which makes the game mostly pointless until the end. Still, it’s eternally popular in Afghanistan (the Taliban even allowed infrequent matches to be held) because of the way the spirit of the game mirrors the Afghan spirit.

Google Search, Gmail, AdSense and several other Google services, including YouTube, were slow for a while Thursday and, in some instances, completely down. Google acknowledged the outage, said it was working on the matter, and the issue was resolved by midafternoon Eastern time.

Google explained the outage in a blog post comparing it to an airplane flight.

“Imagine if you were trying to fly from New York to San Francisco, but your plane was routed through an airport in Asia,” said Urs Hoelzle, senior vice president of operations at Google. “And a bunch of other planes were sent that way, too, so your flight was backed up and your journey took so much longer than expected.”

That’s basically what happened to some Google users, according to the company, beginning at 10:48 a.m. Eastern time.

“An error in one of our systems caused us to direct some of our Web traffic through Asia, which created a traffic jam,” Hoelzle said. “As a result, about 14 percent of our users experienced slow services or even interruptions.”

The error messages began with Google News but didn’t end there. Google’s Apps Status dashboard then reported several service disruptions with Google Sites, Gmail and Calendar. Google said the glitch was embarrassing and apologized.

Not the First Time

Outages and interruptions in services have plagued the Internet search giant before. Just three months ago Google’s Gmail service was down. Google addressed the issue in an official blog post, saying the company was alerted by its monitoring systems that Gmail consumer and business accounts worldwide could not get access to their e-mail.

While the outage wasn’t long-lasting, its timing could be considered comical as just the day before Google was urging e-mail users to switch from their old accounts to Gmail.

Chad Parry, a Gmail engineer, tried convincing reluctant e-mail account holders…

Andy Mckee – Drifting

Andy McKee (born in 1979 in Topeka, Kansas, is an American finger style guitarist currently signed to the American record label Candyrat Records. His style of playing and his compositions have earned him a considerable international fan base; in late 2006, a live performance of his flagship song “Drifting” became a Featured Video on YouTube and MySpace, achieving over 21,000,000 views on the former to date and remaining one of its highest rated music clips.

Richard Thompson – Vincent Black Lightning 1952

Richard Thompson is a British songwriter, guitar player and recording and performing musician. Thompson is especially well regarded as a guitar player. He was named in the top 20 in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. In 1991 he was awarded the Orville H. Gibson award for best acoustic guitar player. Thompson’s songwriting has been recognized by an Ivor Novello Award and, in 2006, a lifetime achievement award from BBC Radio. Richard Thompson made his debut as a recording artist as a member of Fairport Convention in September 1967. He continues to write and record new material and performs live frequently throughout Canada, the United States, Europe and Australia.

Adrian Legg – Cajun Interlude

Adrian Legg is an English guitar player who has been called “impossible to categorize”. He plays custom guitars that are a hybrid of electric and acoustic, and his unparalleled finger style picking technique has been acknowledged by the readers of Guitar Player who voted Legg the “best acoustic finger style” player four years in a row (1993–1996).From his early start as a bench technician customizing electric guitars, Legg moved into guitar instruction, publishing books and videos on guitar technique. In 1996 and 1997, Legg shared the stage with acclaimed guitar experts Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson and Steve Vai as part of the G3 tour. Vai called Legg “Uncle Adrian”and Satriani said of Legg’s musicianship “He’s simply the best acoustic guitar player I’ve ever heard. I don’t know anyone else who can create such a cascade of beautiful notes… Adrian plays like he’s got hammers for fingers.

Erik Mongrain – PercusienFa

Erik Mongrain is a Canadian composer and guitarist. He uses a unique acoustic style including a two-handed lap tapping technique on the acoustic guitar. Erik Mongrain taught himself guitar at the age of 14. As a boy he was mostly interested in sports, but picked up an interest in the guitar and began to teach himself to play by ear. Erik started out playing the electric guitar, but developed an interest in classical and acoustic guitar after hearing the work of Johann Sebastian Bach. Erik taught himself to read music, and began composing.

Leo Kottke – Medley

Leo Kottke is an acoustic guitarist. He is widely known for his innovative finger picking style, which draws on influences from blues, jazz, and folk music, and his syncopated, polyphonic melodies. Kottke has overcome a series of personal obstacles including partial loss of hearing and a nearly career-ending bout with tendon damage in his hand to emerge as a widely-recognized master of his instrument. Focusing primarily on instrumental composition and playing, Kottke has sporadically moved in a vocal direction, singing in an unconventional yet expressive baritone famously self-described as sounding like “geese farts on a muggy day”. In concert, Kottke intersperses humorous and often bizarre monologues with vocal and instrumental selections from throughout his career, played solo on his signature 6 and 12-string guitars. ‘Artist Discography’

Terry Rob – Acoustic Blues

Terry Robb is considered to be one of the top acoustic blues guitarists on the West Coast, Terry Robb is also an inventive and ever-evolving American primitive master. As an heir to the late, great John Fahey’s musical legacy, Robb is an established icon in a pantheon that includes Robbie Basho, Leo Kottke, Peter Lang, John Renbourn, and Stefan Grossman. Terry Robb began his career in Portland as a hot-shot guitar-slinger who could play any style of music and excel at them all. At an early age, inspired by his uncle, a professional swing guitarist, Robb immersed himself in all the blues, ragtime, folk, jazz, and country music he could lay his guitar-picking fingers on. In college, he studied music theory with the Czechoslovakian modern classical composer Tomas Svoboda; but once classes ended, Robb hit the road with Frank Zappa/Captain Beefheart alumnus Ramblin’ Rex Jakabosky, who taught him new theories: the ropes of the Northwest club scene.

Justin King – Knock on Wood

Justin King is an American musician from Eugene, Oregon, best recognized for his percussive acoustic guitar style which consists of a variety of influences ranging from jazz to Celtic music. Currently, King focuses on performing rock music with his band. Inspired by Nirvana, he began playing guitar around age 14 and wrote and performed songs with his current bassist, Drew Dresman. After mastering the drums, King began to focus on acoustic guitar at age 19, and in 1999 he released his self-titled album, followed by Opening in 2000. Both are currently out-of-print, and King currently has no intent to reissue these albums. ‘Artist Discography’

Tommy Emmanuel – Guitar Boogie

Tommy Emmanuel is an Australian guitarist, best known for his complex finger-picking style, energetic performances and the use of percussive effects on the guitar. By the age of 9, in 1964, he was a working professional musician. Recognizing the musical talents of Tommy and his brother Phil, their father created a family band, sold the family home and took his family on the road. With the family living in two station wagons, much of Emmanuel’s childhood was spent touring Australia with his family, playing rhythm guitar, and rarely going to school. The family found it difficult living on the road; they were poor and were often hungry, never settling in one place. His father would often drive ahead, organize interviews, advertising and finding the local music shop where they’d have an impromptu concert the next day. Eventually the New South Wales Department of Education insisted that the Emmanuel children needed to go to school regularly.

At the Merton Restaurant in Taiwan, you can literally eat a chocolate sundae out of a toilet bowl. If that’s your thing.